Alex Hales expresses frustration over stalled one-day career with England

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/apr/16/alex-hales-frustration-england-one-day-career

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Alex Hales feels England have not given him a fair crack at the start of his one-day international career and claims the standard of limited-overs cricket in this country will continue to suffer unless a high-intensity Twenty20 tournament is created.

The 26-year-old Nottinghamshire opener has now spent two years in the top three of the world Twenty20 rankings but has picked up only nine caps in the 50-over form of the game and was a frustrated onlooker for the first four matches of the doomed World Cup campaign.

Asked whether, having been dropped four games into his one-day career last November and playing just five of 18 internationals since, he felt mucked about, Hales replied: “Honestly, yes I do. I don’t feel like I’ve had a proper crack at it yet. I played the back end of last summer against India, did OK without setting the world alight, and since then it has been the odd game, coming in, dropping out again. I think that is a fair thing to say.”

Hales, who needed to score three of England’s four highest Twenty20 scores to convince the selectors he was worthy of a one-day debut last August, has also rejected the claim made by some that his game was “worked out” by India’s bowlers during that first, brief spell in the 50-over side.

Among them was the head coach Peter Moores, who, on first dropping the right-hander in Sri Lanka last November, told a press conference: “India had started to bring the ball back into Alex and bowl spin at him and he has to decide what else he is going to come back at them with.” Understandably, such public analysis hurt. “I read the press and saw the stuff about ‘bringing the ball back in’ and that I had been worked out – I got bowled once by Bhuvneshwar Kumar with an inswinger. That’s not being worked out, that’s a good delivery.

“Getting the news at the start of that Sri Lanka tour that I wasn’t going to get first crack dented my confidence quite a bit. Maybe I let it affect me in a negative way,” he said. “I am still learning my game but I would definitely not say I have been ‘worked out’. I do feel I’m ready for the standard of one-day cricket, I have shown in Twenty20 cricket I can take down international bowling attacks.”

With the structure of the domestic game currently undergoing a six-month consultation period by the England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive, Tom Harrison, and the incoming chairman, Colin Graves, Hales is one of many players in favour of the mooted eight- or 10-team Twenty20 tournament.

“[The World Cup] was an embarrassment – and that is probably being generous. We played with a fear of failure,” Hales said. “Where that comes from is a tough question but I think if you look at the top teams, they do have a lot of people playing in tournaments like the Indian Premier League. They are used to big crowds and have no such fear.” Like many cricketers on the domestic circuit, Hales fears the once-a-week NatWest T20 Blast competition is not the answer.

“You saw the influence of Twenty20 cricket on the World Cup. Something has to be done with our competition to help the standard because everyone can see we are falling behind the rest of the world,” he said. “At the moment, when you play Twenty20 on a Friday night after a four-day match earlier in the week, you don’t get a proper chance to practise.

“Last year I had two or three Twenty20 practice sessions in the whole year. If that continues the standard will continue to drop. A block of games and fewer teams will raise it.”

That verdict is hardly on-message for a player who spent Wednesday as one of the highest-profile names at the promotional launch of the NatWest T20 Blast in Birmingham. As with all of his answers, though, it is an honest one.

For the right-hander, who hopes to play against Ireland in the one-off ODI in Dublin next month, there is still plenty to be cheery about. “In English cricket there are plenty of raw, talented young cricketers around,” he added. “Moving forward those guys are going to get a chance. It is our individual responsibility to release the tension and give it a crack.”